Today’s news is powered by “ANSKY”:
- CC Sabathia made a simulated start on Monday. 28 pitches … only one of which were put into play in fair territory.
- C-MW looked good and, more importantly felt fine, in his start against the Astros Monday.
- Joba Chamberlain made a kid’s life a little happier, as he spent part of Sunday at Disney World with a hard-working student from his hometown:
Chamberlain said that his efforts to give back have been well-received at home.
“I pick a student that represents what I stand for and where I come from,” Chamberlain said. “Jazmine had worked really hard, and she deserved it. Talking to her parents, I guess a lot of kids started working harder in school because of the rewards that come along with it.”
While in Orlando, Chamberlain appeared on the Baseball Tonight studio set and introduced Jazmine and her family to CC Sabathia, who was also present for the ESPN events.
“It’s cool to be able to cherish that with your teammate and someone that cherishes their time with their family as much as I do,” Chamberlain said.
- BP.com’s Joe Sheehan examines how the Yankees have (re)built their bullpen over the last few seasons:
Other than re-signing 2008 trade acquisition Damaso Marte to a three-year, $12 million deal, the Yankees made the statement, however implicit, that they are committed to their homegrown relievers in 2009. One of the bright spots in the team’s first October-free season since 1994 was the emergence of hurlers such as Edwar Ramirez and Jose Veras, who combined to strike out 126 men in 113 innings with a 3.74 ERA. By the end of the season, Phil Coke and David Robertson were making contributions in low-leverage situations. Add in free-talent pickups like Brian Bruney and Alfredo Aceves, and the Yankees have more than enough effective relievers to go around, whether you’ve heard of them or not.
- Bill Madden affords Johnny Damon an opportunity to opine on Joe Torre’s thoughts of him in “The Yankee Years”:
In regard to leaving the team to go home to Orlando and ponder retirement in spring training 2007, Damon explained: “I was really bummed out by the way everything ended for us in 2006 (losing to the Detroit Tigers in four games in the AL divisional series). (Gary Sheffield) being benched, Alex batting eighth, all of that. We’d worked so hard to have it end that way when I felt we had the best team. And then after Cory Lidle’s death, I started looking at things in a bigger picture, being home with my kids after missing all the years of them growing up.”
As for the insinuations by Torre that old guard Yankees questioned his commitment and wanted him out of there, Damon shook his head sadly.
“There’s nothing I can do about that,” he said. “I talked to (Torre) in what I thought was confidentiality. Joe had a chance to put me on the disabled list. Unfortunately, (Hideki) Matsui got hurt and we were short outfielders and Joe had to keep running me out there when I needed three-four days of rest for my legs. As soon as Shelley (Duncan) came up, that bought me time and over the last six weeks I was able to play much better, and last year was one of my best seasons.”
- If you care about this stuff, ESPN’s Amy Nelson has an article on A-Rod’s cousin, Yuri Sucart.
[My take: I suspect Deadspin is gonna have a field day with the headline from the article … sigh.]
- Amongst PeteAbe’s “random thoughts” Monday was this gem:
Watching Mariano Rivera sign a baseball is memorable. He takes the ball, slowly turns it to the right spot and oh-so-carefully writes his name in perfect script. Then he blows on the ball to make sure the ink is dry. Most guys can sign five balls in the time it takes him to sign one.
- NYYankeesRumors.com provides us with a boatload of updated construction photos from the new Stadium.
- “Jimmy Scott’s High and Tight” has an interview with former Yankee hurler Brian Boehringer.
- 1956 World Series game 4 winning pitcher Tom Sturdivant has died at the age of 78.
- Here’s a photo of men being boys … CC and Joba enjoying themselves at Disney World.
- Neal Heaton, born in South Ozone Park, turns 49 today. He finished his career with a very short stint as a mop-up man with the Yanks in 1993.
- Dennis Sherrill, the Yanks 1st round pick in the 1974 amateur draft, turns 53 today. Sherrill’s major league career consisted of five ABs over two seasons.
- On this date in 1998, the Yankees replace general manager Bob Watson (who had resigned) with Brian Cashman.
I have like zero confidence in all those relievers, but the beauty of it is that if they bomb, its easy enough to ship them out,
Alex, what are your thoughts regarding today's NY Times article on McCarthy's "Odd Man Out?" The allegations that he lied about what people said and created situations out of whole cloth are pretty severe.
[2]
Yikes!
Mo really is a top bloke.
Interesting stat in the obit for Tom Sturdivant--Yankee starters threw five complete games in the 1956 Series, including the no-no.
Baseball Digest features the Yankee signings on the cover. Another interesting piece of trivia in one of the quizzes:True or False-Mike Mussina is the first Major Leaguer to win 20 games in his last season. Answer: False--Moose and two guys from the White/Black Sox, Ed Cicotte and Lefty Williams.
Interview with Ryne Duren about 1958 Series is also of interest.
Does anyone except me still read this mag? I love it.
Sturdivant's obit in today's Times:
http://tinyurl.com/b3sewa
[1] And what relievers not named Mariano do you have confidence in? As Steve Goldman often points out, relievers are pretty much commodity items. They'll get hot more a month or two, or sometimes even for a season or two, but they will generally then regress to the mean. The ideal bulpen is a corp of young, cheap arms who can be swapped for more young, cheap arms from AAA when their welcome runs out. I think that Cashman has been trying to build such a bullpen for quite some time and that he finally found in Girardi a manager who could manage such a bullpen. I would take Edwar-Veras-Robertson over Karsay-Stanton-Quantrill any day.
[7] My sentiments exactly! I think the whole point of a BP like the Yanks, and to be fair, what [1] was hinting at, is that it should be interchangeable. Relievers are fickle year to year and even within the season. When one stops being effective, change him out.
From PeteAbe's blog:
UPDATE, 1:18 p.m.: Hughes gave up a bleeder single by Pedroia. Then he got the shortstop to ground into a double play. That guy stinks.
[9]
My $$$ roto team last year was named "Pedroia Own Conclusions"
That's sort of my point. I haven't bought into the new and improved Brian Bruney. I think Ramirez and Veras are disasters waiting to happen. But its easy enough to ship them out if and when they fail, unlike, say, 7 million dollars worth of Kyle Farnsworth.
That's an extremely heartwarming story about Joba. I don't know why, I know a lot of players really do give of their time with grace and charity, but this really touches me. Maybe because he's so young himself.
Mattpat11, your href attribute for internal links should begin with the #, i.e. href=#comment-93164, not href="http://www.bronxbanterblog.com/?p=8625&cp=1#comment-93164".